Metal bending and forming machine



F. L. H. SIMS.

METAL BENDING AND FORMING MACHINE.

APPLICAIIONTILED NOV. 30, 1917.

1,336,660. Patented Apr, 13, 1920 5 SHEETS-SHEET l.

ZNVENTUR.

8M Mm.

F. L. H. SIMS.

METAL BENDING AND FORMING MACHINE. APPLICAHON FILED NOV. 30, 1917.

1,336,660; Patented Apr. 13, 1920.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1N VEN TOR 50C Mm -F. L. H. SIMS.

METAL BE-NDING AND ronmme MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 13, 1920.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 30. I917.

71 HAW I-ww F. L. H. SIMS.

METAL BENDING AND FORMING MACHINE.

APPLICAHON nuzn Nov. 30. 1917.

1,336,660, Patented Apr. 13; 1920.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

aimm

F. L. H. SIMS.

' METAL BENDING AND FORMING MACHINE.

APPLICAHON FILED N0v.3o, 1917.

Patented Apr. 13, 1920.

5 SHEETSSHEET 5.

11v VENTUR 51. Hdmw J? W%A.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

I FREDERICK I. H. SIMS, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, ASSIGNOR TO THE TDIAII'IONE SIGNAL COMPANY, LIMITED, 0E TORONTO, CANADA.

METAL BENDING AND FORMING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 13, 19.20.

Application filed November 30, 1917. Serial No. 204,692.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK L. H. Snus, of the cityof Toronto, in the county of York, Province of Ontario, Canada, a subject of the King of Great Britain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in h/ etal Bending and Forming llachines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for making split slotted bolts such as shown in my co-pending application No. 7 8, 165 filed February 15th, 1916; This bolt. is formed from a half-round blank bent on itself and having a slot formed therein by bending and displacing the metal of the blank, and my. object is to devise a machine which will take a blank, bend it, form the slot, and discharge the bolt finished save for heading.

I attain my object by means of the constructions hereinafter more specifically de scribed and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of my bolt-forming machine;

Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same, partly in section;

Fig. 3 an end elevation of the same; and

Fig. 4 a vertical section taken just in front of the forming rolls, parts also being shown in section.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the machine partly broken away.

Fig. 6 is a perspective detail on a larger scale illustrating the operation of bending.

In the drawings like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in-the clifferent figures.

The main elements of my apparatus are the formingv rolls 1, the drum 52 carrying the core members or tongues 3 to cooperate with. the forming rolls, the bending anvils or supports 1, and the stripper 5 for withdrawing formed'bolts from the core members 3.

The rolls 1 are secured to parallel shafts 6 suitably journaled on the frame 7 longitudinally of the apparatus. These shafts are geared-together by means of the intermeshing gear wheels 8. One of'these gear wheels meshes with the pinion 9 on'the shaft 10 journaled on the frame 7, and provided with the gear wheel 11 meshing with the pinion 12 on-the driving shaft 13. The gearing,

it will be noted multiplies the power of the driving shaft 13 at the expense of speed.

The drum2 is formed in halves secured together by bolts 14, and on each side is formed a bevel gear wheel 15. With these bevel gear wheels mesh the bevel pinions 16 secured to the inner ends of the shafts 6 of the forming rolls, so that the movements of the forming rolls and drum 2 exactly synchronize. The drum itself is secured to the shaft 17, journaled transversely on the frame 7 in substantially the same plane as the axes of the forming rolls 1.

The core members 3 are detachably secured to the drum. Preferably they are titted into recesses formed between the halves of the drum and secured in said recesses by means of the wedges 18, which, owing to the open construction of the drum, are easily reached from the inner end by suitable tools, so that they may be driven up tightly to hold the core members in place. If any portion of a coremember be comes unduly worn, it may be shifted in or out or reversed I ith very little trouble. As the wedgesare driven from the inner side of th of the drum, any outward pull on the core members tongues which takes place during the operation of the machine tends to tighten rather than loosen the wedges, so taat in operation the core members will not loosen.

Each tongue in cross section is of substantially the exact dimensions of the slot to be formed in the bolt, and the forming rolls are so shaped as to co'o'perate with these tongues or core members to shape the bolt around them and thus produce the offsetting of the material of the blank both depthwise and transversely of the slot, which produces a bolt with a slotted end having substantially the same cross sectional area of metal therein. as the non-slotted portion of the stem without material increase of the periphery of the slotted as compared with the non-slotted portion of the bolt as described inthe application hereinbefore referred to and as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings of this application. Preferably the movable dies are employed so that they may easily be replaced if they become worn, or different sizes employed.

As will appear on reference particularly to Figs. 2 and 4, the dies 19 are formed Cir with dovetailed bases litted into dovetailed slots extending transversely of the rims of the rolls. The dies are held in place by suitable keys or pins 20 driven through the roll and the base of the die transversely to the shaft of the roll. Each die has a halt round circumferential groove formed therein, the central portion of which is offset toward the center of the roll a distance substantially equal to half the thickness of the slot formed in the bolt. ust behind each die the surface of each roll is suiliciently cut away so that while the opposed surfaces of the two rolls will press the halves of the blank above the slot toward one another, they will not interfere with the movements of a formed bolt in the direction of the axis of the roll, which movem nt must take place during the stripping operation hereinafter described.

While the blanks may be bent by being pressed between the rolls by the act-ion oi thecore members 3 asshown in Fig. 6, yet I prefer to perform as much of the bending operation as possible before the blank is engaged by the rolls. 1 therefore provide the bencing supports at, hereinbel ore referred to, which are supported just above the forming rolls as shown and which are separated by a space preferably somewhat wider than is necessary for the passage of the blank if its halves were bent into close contact. The upper surfaces of the supports are provided with halt-round groov which grooves preferably incline downwardly toward the center of the supports, the corners where the grooves meet the inner faces of the supports being rounded as shown to facilitate the bending down of the blank. The groove is preferably tilted slightly as indicated particularly in 2 toward the rear, so that the flat surface of the blank will be struck squarely by the core. member which engages it. The inclination of the upper surface of the supports 15 very important as it brings the points of support of the blank at the time ben commences so far from the center the. preliminary bending takes place under coniparatively smallpressure and no great pressureis exerted until the blank has assdmed a flat ll-shape when heavy pressure can no longer elfect any longitudinal displacement of the blank as it is likely to do it the blank is originally supported close to the center. The operation of the apparatus I have so far described will be readily apparent. The blank being in position on the supports 4' and the machine being set'in operation. one of theicore members will strike the blank, the center of which has been held so that it will readily bend, and the blank forced down between the supports, bending it so that bythe continued movement of dies have a movement toward one another due to the circular pathin whichtheyl travel and cooperate with the tongue or core member to give the slotted end of the bolt the desired shape.

The parts of the blank forming the nonslotted portion of the stem of the bolt are pressed togetherby the portions of the rolls immediately behind the dies.

The formed bolt is withdrawn irom between the dies by the continued movement the core member, the dies separating as they pass below the'plane of the axes of the rolls, and thus, permitting the withdrawal of the formed bolt. The formed bolt being securely held on the tongue, means must be provided to withdraw it. This is the function of the stripper 5 hereinbefore re erred to. Thestripper is suitably secui to the frame and is slotted for the passage of the core member 3, see particularly Figs. 2- and 4., and'i's provided at each side of the slot with a curved shoulder 21, which curved shoulders in the direction of their length recede gradually from the center of the drum 2. The finished bolt is thus stripped from the core member as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

To carry away the finished'bolts 1 provide' the endless conveyor 22, of ordinary type, driven by the shaft 23 suitably journaled on the frame, provided with a toothed wheel'2 l with which a pin 25 on the gear wheel 11 is adapted to mesh, as shown particularly in Fig. 3. As the gear wheel 11. rotates once for each two rotations of the forming rolls, and as'two dies are secured to each forming roll a small movement is inparted to the conveyor each time a bolt is dropped from the stripper.

In practice an automatic feeding device will be employed to feed blanks on to the bending supports 4:, but such feeder forms no part'of the present invention.

Preferably a stop '26 is provided against which one end of a' blank placed on. the supports may be caused to abut so that each blank is accurately centered on the supports.

The core members I have found are liable to become overheated owing to the length of time they are in "contact with the heated bl ank's. I therefore provide a tank 27 below the drum 2, which contains a cooling liquid into which the core members dip as the drum rotates;

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a machine for iormingbent slotted bolts, the combination of a pair of coopcrating rolls ournaled on par llel axes and each provided with a plurality of equally spaced dies at its periphery, each diehaving ircumferential half round groove formed in its face, a portion of each groove being offset toward the center of the roll to permit the metal of the bolt blank to be offset laterally according to the thickness of the slotto be formed in the bolt, the surface of each roll being sniiiciently cut away behind each die to permit of the withdrawal of a formed bolt from between the rolls in a direction parallel to the axes of the rolls, when the said cut away parts of t e rolls are in juxtaposition.

2. In a machine for forming bent slotted bolts, the combination of a pair of forming rolls suitably journaled to rotate in synchronism and carrying cooperating dies adapted to substantially contact with each other, each die having a circumferential half round groove formed in its face, a portion of each groove being offset toward the center of the roll to permit the metal of the bolt blank to be offset laterally according to the thickness of the slot to be formed in the bolt; and a substantially flat sided tongue carried by a rotatable shaft so as to be movable to and from a cooperating position relative to the dies, the tongue and dies being proportioned to bend blank around the tongue and to offset the metal'of the blank into the offset portions of the half round grooves.

3. In a machine for forming bent slotted bolts the combination of a pair of forming rolls suitably journaled to rotate in synchronism and carrying cooperating dies adapted to substantially contact with each other, each die having a circumferential half round groov/ formed in its face, a portion of each groove being offset toward the center of the rol to permit the metal of the bolt blank to be offset laterally according to the thickness of the slot to be formed in the bolt; a substantially flat sided tongue car ried by a rotatable shaft so as to be movable to and from acooperating position relative to the dies, the tongue and dies being proportioned to bend a blank around the tongue and to offset the metal of the blank into the offset portions of the half round grooves; and a stripper having a bolt engaging surface inclined in a plane parallel to the axes of the rollers and adapted to draw off formed bolts endwise of said tongue as the tongue moves by the stripper.

4-. In a machine for bending and forming metal blanks, the combination of a pair of forming rolls suitably journaled for cooperation; a drum journaled to rotate in a plane between the axes of the rolls and provided with tongues adapted to pass between the rolls; and a water tank located so that the aforesaid tongues may pass through water contained therein as the drum is rotated.

5. In a machine for forming bent slotted. bolts, the combination of a pair of cooperat in rolls journaled on parallel axes and each provided with a plurality of equally spaced dies at its periphery, each die having a circumferential half round groove formed in its face, a portion of each groove being offset toward the center of the roll to permit the metal of the bolt blank to be offset laterally according to the thickness of the slot to be formed in the bolt, the surface of each roll being sufficiently cut away behind each die to permit of the withdrawal of a formed bolt from between the rolls in a direction parallel to the axes of the rolls, when the said cut away parts of the rolls are in juxta- -position; and a substantially flat sided tongue carried by a rotatable shaft so as to be movable to and from a cooperating position relative to the dies, the tongue and dies being proportioned to bend a blank around the tongue and to offset the metal of the blank into the offset portions of the half round grooves; and a stripper having a bolt engaging surface inclined in a plane parallel to the axes of the rollers and adapted to draw oif formed bolts endwise of said tongue as the tongue moves by the stripper.

Signed at Toronto, Canada, this 17th day of November, 1917.

FREDERICK L. H. SIMS. 

